Painting- Part C

This was submitted to the BC Land Rover Mailing List by David Walker.

Now you are nearly ready to paint. The following procedure will take three easy days (or one long day) to complete, then you can drive over to your friends and show them what a great job you have done. A comment about paints is in order. I am assuming that you are going to use an enamel based paint for the job. I am also assuming that you are going to paint the Land Rover to original colours, if not, read the comments to follow. Read the paint labels, make sure that everything is compatible and works the way you want it to.

Choosing the colour(s) for your Land Rover. First off, it is much, much easier to paint the vehicle the same colour as it was. Scratches later on will not show up as much as if there was a colour change. If you do decide to do a colour change, you may have to prime the whole vehicle to get an even base. You use gray primer for white, blue, green, yellow, gray, silver and black. You use red primer for red, orange and brown. You can also get black primer. A word for those of you wanting to do military paint schemes. You are probably thinking that you should just do it with spray cans. I strongly recommend using automotive paints and adding a flattener with a hardener. The automotive paint will be harder, last longer and comes in as many colours as you can imagine. There are also some great books on military paint schemes, check out the library or a model shop. Rather than inventing your own, check out some past designs. I once painted a truck and trailer in the 1943, summer/fall, northern Europe scheme and colours (mixed deciduous/conifer) used by the Germans - it looked pretty cool. Camouflage schemes stand out like crazy in the city, so you may as well chose a scheme you like. Camouflage paint schemes are always painted from lightest colour to darkest, dark overspray stands out less on a light colour than the other way around. You can paint all the colours in one day. How about the American destroyer scheme in 1944, Pacific Ocean?

Materials to gather up (get rid of everything else)

Paint:
1 quart/liter of etching primer, 1 qt/l of catalyst for etching primer (double this if you are priming the whole vehicle).
2-4 qt/l of the body colour.
1-2 qt/l of roof colour
1 - 2 gallons of reducer
1 qt (or less if you can get it) of hardener

Paint Support:
12 straining filters, they usually give you these for free
Stir sticks, also free
waxless 12-16 ounce cups
chunk of plywood or old steel (to test your spray pattern)
Latex gloves

Paint Booth:
Enough 2 mil poly to cover all the walls and related goodies that you don't want paint dust on.
Stapler - something real like a T-50
9/16 stables
Duct tape

Tacking/Cleaning:
Wash solution - the stuff that you have been using
Cloth diapers
toilet paper (cheap, single ply and white)
Tack cloths (see the caution below)
Lacquer thinner for cleaning the gun and related items

Equipment:
Spray system - test your gun with reducer before you use it
Dual cartridge mask with new cartridges
Suit of some kind - to protect you clothes from getting paint on them
Watering jug - to wet down the floor

Day one (or the first 2-4 hours)

Sweep or blow off the floor. Set up all the poly, stapling it to the walls and ceiling. If the poly is likely to being blown around, roll up the bottom around scraps of wood and staple. Place poly covers over anything you are not moving out of the paint booth area, weigh them down with wood scraps or tape them. Do not seal the main big door, you are going to work with it open. Set up your paint supplies in an area other than the paint booth area if you can. Place your other parts that you want painted the same colour in the booth. Leave enough room for you to move around without touching anything.

Day two ( the next 4-6 hours...PAINTING)

Open the big door, sweep/blow all the dust and crud from the paint booth area. Sprinkle the floor with your watering can, no puddles if you please. You are wetting the floor to give the dust some place to stick and to stop your stomping feet and dragging hose from churning up the dust. Do a quick check of your masking while you tack the body. Tack (to wipe off all dust) the body with toilet paper or proper tack cloths. CAUTION in using proper tack cloths, unfold them then wad them loosely. Wipe down the whole vehicle. DO NOT press down hard with the tack cloth, you do not want to leave a wax "skid" behind, no paint will stick to it. Toilet paper does a great job. Use the cleaner if you or someone else has been touching the body with their grubby paws.

Follow the directions for mixing paint ratios. Have only one mixed quart at a time. I choose an etching primer that allowed me to paint over it with the colour in 1/2 hour after application (about the time it takes me to clean the gun and mix up a new colour). Stir up the paint well in the container. Measure out and mix the paints in the cups (one reason why I prefer 16oz cups). A common mix is 8/8 paint, 7/8 reducer, 1/8 hardener - giving you 1 qt/l of mixed paint. Strain the paint into the gun cup. Hook up the gun and paint. Test your pattern on plywood or a spare panel before you go to the body. Spray on your primer to the areas that need it. Primer is a good "training" paint, it will train you for what follows. Clean your gun and get ready for the colour paint coat. You are going to build up coats. Spray the whole vehicle in a "tack" coat. In the tack coat you should still be able to see the paint/primer underneath. Don't make this to heavy, it is a serious mistake to get heavy now. Follow up immediately with the second coat, this should hide the old paint/primer. The final coat is the flow coat. On this third coat, you are going to lay the paint on moderately heavy so that it can flow out. Do those horizontal surfaces first so that you get to know what it should look like to be "wet" then tackle those vertical surfaces - not to heavy or it will run. You are done painting (at least one colour). Clean up your gun, real good, you should not be able to tell that you even used it when you are done.

1 1/2 -3 hours later, remove all your masking from the vehicle.

Day three (put all the little stuff back on, a couple of hours)

Back the vehicle out and get the top and rims into the booth. Put all the lights and stuff back on the vehicle. Follow days 1 through 3 for the other colour panels and parts. Assemble and show off.

Next (and last in this Tip) is those little details. How to paint, finish and bring up all the stuff you didn't paint.

This is the end of Part C, if you wish to move on click here to go to Part D.
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